HEYGATE, William Unwin (1825-1902), of Brent Pelham Hall , Hertfordshire; Maplewell Grange , Leicestershire

A Conservative country banker, Heygate was a knowledgeable presence in debates on commercial and financial questions, but was not afraid of intervening on other issues. In the late eighteenth century his family, originally from Leicestershire, developed a banking business with branches in Leicester and the City of London, which superseded their earlier interests in hosiery. Heygate’s grandfather, James (1747-1833), married into the Unwin family, who were prominent merchant hosiers, and was a partner in Pares’s Leicestershire Bank, which was founded in 1800.1C. Billson, Leicester memoirs (1924), 21-23; S. Chapman, Hosiery and knitwear: four centuries of small-scale industry in Britain, c.1589-2000 (2002), 34-35; VCH Leics. iii. 50-56; D. Wykes, ‘Banking in nineteenth-century Leicester’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society (1996), lxx. 150-53. His father, William Heygate (1782-1844), joined the same bank in 1813, but accrued a wide range of interests in the City, where he was Lord Mayor, 1822-23. He was an independent MP for Sudbury, 1818-26, and also acquired land in Essex.2HP Commons, 1790-1820, iv. 192-93; HP Commons, 1820-32.

After completing his education, Heygate was called to the bar but joined Pares’s bank rather than pursue a legal career.3Billson, Leicester memoirs, 24; Dod’s parliamentary companion (1862), 217. Although he usually styled himself as a Liberal Conservative, he stood as an anti-Palmerstonian candidate at Bridport at the 1857 general election, where he finished a distant third, and he retained a preference for a non-interventionist foreign policy.4Ibid.; The Times, 21 Mar. 1857; McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, ed. J. Vincent and M. Stenton (1972, 8th edn.), 32. Two years later at Leicester he narrowly missed being returned in second place, but profited from Liberal divisions to secure a by-election victory there, 7 Feb. 1861.5McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, 168; VCH Leics. iv. 221-22; The Times, 6 Feb. 1861.

In the House, Heygate, speaking in support of William Edward Forster, repeatedly pressed ministers over trade negotiations to reduce the high tariffs Belgium placed on British goods.6Hansard, 12 July 1861, vol. 164, cc. 806-07; ibid., 28 Mar. 1862, vol. 166, cc. 237-38; ibid., 11 July 1862, vol. 168, c.240. He called for rigid economies during the 1862 budget debates, and, unimpressed with Gladstone blaming the deficit on the cost of the Crimean War, pointed out that ‘this country was always at war’ and ‘such contingencies ought to enter into the calculations of our Financial Minister’.7Hansard, 3 Apr. 1862, vol. 166, cc. 506-07 (at 506). Although opposed to the abolition of church rates, he proposed a compromise solution, which he later withdrew, whereby the rate would be transferred from occupiers to owners, with the caveat that those owners who were unwilling to pay the rate for conscientious reasons could exempt themselves.8Hansard, 24 June 1862, vol. 167, cc. 1001-09, 1017; House of Commons Division Lists, 1861 session, 27 Feb. 1861; ibid., 1862 session, 14 May 1862. In 1864 he seconded Forster’s motion for an inquiry into the arrangements between government departments for promoting trade with foreign countries, but did not serve on the committee.9Hansard, 15 Apr. 1864, vol. 174, c.1092; PP 1864 (493), vii. 279. In the same session, he proposed giving magistrates permissive power to erect bridges, but withdrew his bill after it received an entirely negative response.10Hansard, 11 May 1864, vol. 175, cc. 351-53; PP 1864 (77), i. 543-46. He also called ‘attention to the want of ventilation in the Ladies’ Gallery, which could only be likened to the Black Hole of Calcutta. There was no possibility of obtaining air except by opening a door, which created a draught by which the ladies were almost blown to pieces.’11Hansard, 12 May 1864, vol. 175, 434. See also Punch (1864), xlvii. 12. Although Dod described him as ‘in favour of moderate reform’, he divided against the county franchise bill of 1864, and the borough franchise bills of 1864 and 1865.12Dod’s parliamentary companion (1862), 217; House of Commons Division Lists, 1864 session, 13 Apr. 1864, 11 May 1864; ibid., 1865 session, 8 May 1865.

In 1865 Heygate expressed the ‘distrust and dislike’ of the country banks for Gladstone’s bill which proposed phasing out their power to issue notes.13Hansard, 1 May 1865, vol. 178, cc. 1260, 1266, 1271-72 (at 1260). He later softened his stance, but when Gladstone seemed to breach a private agreement with the Association of Bankers, he resumed hostilities, prompting a heated exchange with the chancellor, who did, however, accept Heygate’s amendment which was designed to assuage county bankers’ concerns, and later withdrew the bill.14Hansard, 25 May 1865, vol. 179, cc. 801-03, 815, 819-21, 827; PP 1865 (123) i. 57; CJ, cxx. 326.

He finished third at the 1865 general election behind two Liberals, but was returned unopposed for Stamford, 24 June 1868, after the accession of the previous Conservative incumbent to the Lords.15Derby Mercury, 19 July 1865; McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, 169, 275; VCH Leics. iv. 223-24. Back in the House, he called for more polling stations at county elections, and criticised an amendment, designed to prevent impersonation, to the election petitions and corrupt practices at elections bill, which he felt risked disenfranchising voters.16Hansard, 20, 22 July 1868, vol. 193, cc. 1505-06, 1630-31.

Stamford was reduced to one member in 1868 and Heygate did not seek re-election. He was returned at a by-election for South Leicestershire in 1870, where he sat until his defeat at the 1880 general election.17McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, 168, 275. Although his voting record suggested conventional Conservative opinions, on most issues he was open to compromise and persuasion, and he spoke in favour of female suffrage in 1879.18Hansard, 7 Mar. 1879, vol. 244, cc. 445-49. He was elected a director of Midland Railway in 1862 and later served as chairman of Pares’s Leicestershire bank, which was amalgamated two months after his death in March 1902.19Bankers’ Magazine (1862), xxiv. 158; The Times, 4 Mar. 1902; VCH Leics. iii. 56. He was succeeded by his eldest son, William Howley Beaumont Heygate (1854-1928), who pursued a military career and served alongside his three sons in World War I.20Burke’s peerage and baronetage (1949), 1005. Heygate’s elder brother, Sir Frederick William Heygate, 2nd bt. (1822-94), married into an Ulster family and was Conservative MP for County Londonderry, 1859-74.21Belfast News-Letter, 16 Nov. 1894; McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, 184; M. Stenton (ed.) Who’s who of British Members of Parliament (1978), i. 191.